New Founders Launching to Silence
New founders are experiencing significant anxiety and frustration around launching their projects. The core pain is the disconnect between the effort invested in development and the lack of visibility or feedback after launch, leaving them unsure if their work resonates with potential users. This highlights a need for better guidance and support during the crucial launch phase.
SOURCES (60)
“That consistency compounds point is real and hits home hard. Seems like every honest conversation has taught me something I couldn’t have gotten from research alone. What are you building?”
“This means a lot. Let me know if you have any feedback or have an ideas on how I can make the site even better, always trying to improve it!”
“Why did you decide to build this app? Who are you building it for? Whoever that is, go where they are and start having conversations. This is why you gotta start with reference users before writing code.”
“Have you gotten any anonymous feedback on the app at all? I’ve had multiple instances where developers are surprised by what they hear.”
“Man, I never said they will come after launch, I know we need to have a base before launching or else its just loss...”
“The problem is visibility, they can't have a desire for an app that they've never heard of. I just need to get it in front of people's eyes, that's all.”
“two weeks of organic signups is just luck. wait until first database failure hits and you are only one on call.”
It's a great point. Can you suggest a more inclusive approach?
Humla - Free and local AI meeting notes Mac app, open source
“If you're stuck weeks you're missing vital time where you can iterate on user feedback The name isn't as important as you think Go for something which isn't awful and then rebrand once someone comes up with a better name”
Happy it landed, go build the loop and see how it feels.
“Any software tool needs to be messaged to prospects as part of their pain / process / outcome journey. I'm sure you're proud of your tool, but you need to lead with your prospect. Do some more research on what specific problems the app solves, then build content around it that's prospect- rather than seller-focused. Also, you've taken a good first step by creating a beta testing group. Now build case studies around their experiences and that's your marketing campaign to start”
“Noted! I was thinking the same. What do you reckon of the progression of the design system (aka the waitlist not being exactly the same style as the functional app)?”
“I'd build a waitlist page, where people signup so they know when you launch. You'll be able ti gauge interest in your idea.. A UI with no backend leaves a bad experience so definitely do not do that.. I'd go ! Waitlist -> functional app with core features -> refine..”
“Sure, though I've probably burned through my reddit quota for the day. Time to start the day job. (-:”
“thanks man your site really helped me lot finding problems. Previously i was roaming around many sites all of them were just garbage .”
I launched my first product (a small edtech platform with a one-time purchase model) around five weeks ago. It's my first time building and shipping something from scratch, so I've been learning…
“not gonna sugar coat it, the approach angles thing sounds like it could go either way. if it's genuinely picking up on signals from their recent moves or hiring patterns or whatever, that could be killer. if it's generic "help them scale" type stuff then yeah it's filler”
“Startup Name / URL: Problem Sight - https://problemsight.com HQ: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - (building for global + SEA founder audience) Elevator pitch: Problem Sight is a community-curated database of problems worth solving, so think "Problem Hunt, but for the problems that come before the products." People post the painpoints they actually hit, the community upvotes and validates the real ones, and founders browse them to find ideas grounded in real demand instead of guessing. It has a”
“Really appreciate this — genuinely useful, thank you. You're right that I can tighten the pitch, and I will. But I'll gently push back on one part: the personal, non-commercial angle isn't a bug I'm trying to hide — it's the whole point. I'm not trying to out-feature Instagram or Pinterest. I'm trying to build the opposite of them: no ads, no algorithm, no metrics to chase. The "why" is the product. That said, "clear over sentimental" for the PH co”
“I appreciate you making the vision so clear, but if you want to stand out on Product Hunt, you need to tighten up the pitch. Leading with how nervous you are or that it's built on a phone sounds like a passion project, not a product ready for prime time, which will cause serious tech users to question its performance and long-term sustainability. Focus less on the personal sentiment and more on what actually makes the user experience smoother than Instagram or Pinterest, or the skepticism ab”
“Fair point I appreciate you calling it out. My intention wasn't to promote a product, collect users, or drive signups. I intentionally didn't include a link or CTA because I was trying to understand whether the underlying problem is actually valuable before building further. That said, I can see how mentioning that I built something could make it look like a product validation post rather than a general discussion. I'll reframe it around the problem space rather than the tool itself.”
“that is the greatest problem for certain people im happy you realized it. You create the add-on to a real product”
“Muchas gracias! Honestly the "disfrutar del proceso" part is the advice I needed most. A seguir adelante :)”
“My best side project came as an idea from experience my friend had. So, I thought that this might be used by many others even before the project development started.”
“Startup Name / URL: Simply Onno / https://www.simply-onno.com Location of Your Headquarters: Berlin, Germany Elevator Pitch: Simply Onno translates medical documents (discharge letters, MRI reports) into plain language so patients actually understand what’s written about them. It explains what’s already in the document, it doesn’t diagnose. I’m a neurosurgeon and built this because I see patients struggle with exactly that every day. More details: Efficiency stage. 90,000+ reports processed, fre”
“Kill it. I went down a similar route. Had LOI, partnerships agreements in place, etc. you'll find these larger organisations will just lead you on. After 4 years, I had decided to shut it down. I have just started a new venture. 1 month in have an enterprise ready product and now I am beginning to engage people about it to run a trial. Fail fast, iterate, do whatever you can to ger that first paying customer. Be clear on who your ICP is. This time around, I'm partnering with people who h”
“I’d share it early. Real user feedback is worth way more than guessing if people want it”
“I really thought about it, I guess I was a little bit afraid to post my own text. So I'd better work on my self-esteem a little bit more. 😃”
“Honestly, being a strong builder isn't a weakness. A genuinely great product does some of its own marketing, word of mouth, people showing it to others, so don't beat yourself up about being "just builders." But once you've built something good, you do have to shout about it, because nobody finds it on their own. For me it's about making content that actually says something real about the product, not just noise. Get on marketing as early and as fast as you can once the”
“I recently published a super tiny summer project I made in about 6 weeks. To my absolute bewilderment over 800 people have played it in the past 3 days and it’s reached top page in the autobattler category. Because of the excitement I’ve been preparing a lot new content and polish for future updates! What do you think is most needed for the game? You can play it here: https://wizarddude7.itch.io/to-the-tower submitted by /u/WizardDude7 [link] [comments]”
“The BNPL splitting feature sounds like the clearest entry point because it describes a very specific frustration rather than “another budgeting app.” I’d probably build the first content around the exact moments people notice the problem: an installment hitting next month, several providers overlapping, or a monthly budget looking healthier than it really is. The privacy angle is strong too, but it may work better as the reason to trust the product after the BNPL problem gets their attention. Fo”
I showed an early version of our cloud debugging tool to a former coworker (he's a founder now) and he went straight to "this is awesome, I need this, why doesn't this…
“Op this is nice. Building a product is one thing, making the product generate income is a total different hustle”
“I’d follow founders who share what they’re building, how they got users, and what didnt work rather than just posting revenue screenshots”
“Hi folks! This is my work site. Happy for any critical feedback, I know it looks a bit plain/like a template but that's purposeful after doing 'market research' on my target demographic. Going to add a case study for my 2 portfolio pieces on the landing page soon Anything you would change? The idea for this one is the UI is as low friction as possible https://lochlansmith.dev submitted by /u/LateralusRising [link] [comments]”
“That's awesome! Hitting 50 users is a huge milestone - especially when you've been bootstrapping and putting in the months of work to get there. It's so validating when you see features getting covered in publications and real people actually using what you built. The fact that you're getting press mentions shows you're solving something people actually care about. Congrats on the progress - that's the kind of momentum that makes all the late nights worth it. What's b”
“Love to hear that! I hope you can try it out and let me know how it can be improved.”
“I feel you. It really comes down to consistency and getting in front of the right audience. If you’re willing to spend some money, set up a simple waitlist page with a fake buy button and pay a UGC creator in your niche to make two or three test posts. They already have the audience you’re targeting and cheaper then 3 month of your time”
Nobody will find or use your product unless you get eyes on it. Pick one channel, like r/ShowMeYourSaaS , and focus on getting views there. I can also be an alpha tester.…
“With help of AI tools, now its easy to build products given we have interest and time. But challenging problem is distribution and sales. Its always not about as a builder what we like and what we wanted to build as a product and keep it in market hoping someone will buy. we need to flip it. Its always about customer, the buyer. what they like, whats their pain problem and what they wanted, build for it. Again, always build in iteration. build first iteration, release, work on distribution and f”
“If you need a checklist of hoops to jump through to be successful, do anything but entrepreneurship”
“In my opinion, the part of POD that takes the most of me is the niche research and validation. It's almost like a blocker and hold every new project down for a long time. I've been here for while answering niche questions, and I kept noticing the same thing. Most of us are trying to decide if a niche is worth than actually moving forward with the business. I'm not a developer and have been doing POD for a while. The paralysis everytime I would start a new project was painful and conf”
“Two of us launched High Ground on Meta Quest yesterday after 30 years in the industry. No publisher, limited budget, small community. Here's an honest rundown of what we did and what's actually working: What worked: A Reddit dev story post that generated genuine engagement and technical questions from real players A press kit with downloadable assets at a dedicated URL — got a DM today from Gibby's Guide off the back of it Personal outreach to every Quest owner we know personally Wha”